About Us

Chicago Voice Center has been providing voice training since 2009. We believe that your voice can connect you to the world and vice versa. We offer effective and fun lessons, classes, workshops and trainings to businesses and individuals. If your company wants to attract and retain multi-national and diverse talent, we offer professional development courses in communication tailored to fit your goals. If you want to explore and develop your gender expression through voice work, we are culturally competent, knowledgeable and have proven results. Need an accent coach for your film, tv show or theater project? We have been coaching accents since 1988. Wanting to become as good at public speaking as you are at writing? CVC can help you do that, too!

Diane Robinson

Diane is a voice coach specializing in 3 distinct areas of expertise: transgender and non-binary voice work; executive communication coaching; and accents for actors. For Chicago Voice Center, in addition to private lessons, Diane teaches a twice-monthly free transgender voice class for Howard Brown Health's After Hours program, leads an annual Breathing & Empathy workshop with Rush Medical Center students, brings Voice & Movement training to Chicago Sinfonietta's Project Inclusion, and co-hosts Loquacious Ladies, a trans-feminine voice support group. She is a communication coach for Springboards Consulting, working with executive professional development in language and culture. Diane is an adjunct acting instructor at Columbia College Chicago, and recently presented on trans*vocality at the Creative Bodies Creative Minds conference in Graz, Austria, the Transgender Singing Conference at Earlham College and at the One Voice Transgender Voices Festival in St. Paul. Diane chairs the Teaching & Learning Committee for the Voice and Speech Trainers Association and is a member of the VASTA BIzCorp in charge of developing relationships with sponsors for the VASTA conference to be held in Sydney in 2020. Diane is a 30-year member of Actors Equity Association. She has an MFA in Acting from the University of California, Irvine. Diane is a certified Fitzmaurice Voicework teacher, and has a 30-year background in theater. Recent continuing education includes Northwestern University's Center for Audiology, Speech, Language and Learning Transgender Voice Clinical Training Workshop and the Transgender Voice and Communication Training for Voice Clinicians at Roosevelt University. Diane is pursuing certification in Knight-Thompson Speechwork. Diane's research interests include bringing qualitative research practices into the voice lesson, and creating interdisciplinary opportunities for voice trainers, speech pathologists and gender scholars. Recent professional credits include performing with Piven Theater, directing at City Lit Theater, and serving as dialect coach for NBC's Chicago Fire and Eclipse Theater Company.

How quickly those sessions turned into the highlight of my day. Diane not only brings a broad understanding of vocal coaching and speech therapy, but how those processes can be improved and empowered by mindfulness practices. I’m always looking forward to the next lesson, and the one after that. In a continuous journey of self-discovery, Diane is the perfect guide to both learning and growing, and provides a haven for the weary to rest and enjoy.